Centrist coalition set to cling to power in Austria

With their comfortable alpine idyll largely unruffled by Europe's financial woes, Austrians are expected to opt for stability in elections Sunday and return the current centrist coalition to power.
This is despite a vigorous challenge to the status quo by the far right seeking a repeat of Joerg Haider's 1999 triumph, as well as the Greens and Austro-Canadian billionaire eurosceptic Frank Stronach, 81.
"It's not that Austrians particularly like this grand coalition, but they are not so angry that they want to kick them out," sociologist Christoph Hofinger from the SORA polling institute told AFP.
The centre-left Social Democrats (SPOe) and the conservative People's Party (OeVP) have ruled the roost since 1945, mostly as since 2008 under SPOe Chancellor Werner Faymann, 53 in a cosy "grand coalition".

They presided over the country emerging from the trauma of World War II to become one of Europe's wealthiest countries with standards of living to match the stunning scenery.
Unemployment is 4.8 per cent, close to full employment and the lowest in the European Union while gross domestic product per capita is the 10th highest in the world, according to the World Bank.

Support for the two main parties has been declining for decades, winning 29 percent and 26 percent respectively in the last election in 2008, a far cry from scores well above 40 percent from the 1950s through to the 1980s.

But the opposition vote is so divided that the two main parties will likely still win enough on Sunday to continue dominating, although they might have to seek a third coalition partner, experts predict.
"Overall the SPOe and the OeVP are going to suffer slight falls in their share of the vote, but no clear alternative will emerge," Anton Pelinka, an Austrian political scientist at Budapest's Central European University, told AFP.
Haider, infamous for praising Hitler's "orderly" employment policies and other controversial comments, rocked the boat in 1999 when his Freedom Party (FPOe) came joint second and entered government, sparking protests and even EU sanctions.

But history is unlikely to repeat itself with neither big party willing to team up with FPOe head Heinz-Christian Strache, 44, campaigning on a platform of "Love thy Neighbour" if they are Austrian, that is and forecast to win around 20 percent.